The Lay of the Junlaerd; or 'Empire'

It should be noted upfront that no-one, not even most Nieldic villains, condones the actions of the self-declared 'Junlaerd'.

The Junlaerd was born the youngest son of the king of the relatively small city state of Danielland. The name alone should tell you how this story ends. However, rather than an inspiring tale of perseverance, wisdom, and divine intervention; the tale of the Junlaerd is one of the lowest moments in Nieldic history. As a child the Junlaerd was teased for having a name that was easily confused with a few rather courser terms in Nieldic, Especially by his siblings, particularly his sister, the heir apparent. He vowed at an early age to do what ever could be done to prove himself the best of all of them. And so at the eve of his 16Th birthday, the day on which a Nielda is considered an adult, he was approached by a powerful being from another plane of existence, now known to be the demon Ekidan. The being offered him endless power and eternal life; on a single condition. Ten souls were to be delivered up to the being on the Junlaerd's birthday. Without a second thought the Junlaerd excepted the demons offer and pledged the lives of his own siblings as the first payment.

With the demon's power and craftiness at his behest, the Junlaerd lay low one city state after another finally establishing Danielland as one of the leading states of the world. At his wedding, arranged for purely diplomatic reasons to the daughter of a fearful neighbor king, he boldly invited every nation of the world to bask in his glory. None dared to deny his request outright.

But one state, a northern kingdom renowned for it's strong fortifications, ravenous wolf riders, and powerful mages, but revered for it's foresight, wisdom, and love for learning and study, turned back after arriving in the capital city. Claiming illness, Prince A'tai of the ruling Stone clan turned back to deliver a warning to his people of a dark power he sensed within the Junlaerd's palace. Rushing to his father and his siblings he warned them and advised that they train an army and send envoys to the other nations to warn them against the pending threat. But all in vain.

Ekidan was not the fool previous demonic visitors to the world had been. He saw through the Prince's 'illness' and alerted the Junlaerd. Having declared at his wedding feast a new 'Daniellandish Empire' he made it his first act to declare war on the prideful lords of Stone. He sent forth the full might of his armies to crush his new found rivals. After thirty years of harsh sieges and devastating field battles, the Junlaerd's armies were defeated; unable to breach the thick walls of the northern power, or to out-maneuver their swift wolf riders.

It was only after forty years of continued conquest the Junlaerd would return his gaze to the Fortresses of his Rival, the now King A'tai. This time the Junlaerd invested in engineers, inventors, and chemists; searching for a means to even the odds against the wolf riders and to bring down the great walls of the stone kingdom. Success was had quickly to both problems. A new crossbow, designed to fire a great speed with minimal training allowed his massed infantry to gain an edge against the wolf riders; while an ancient Nieldic alchemist's formula allowed him the firepower needed to breech even the strongest walls. With these new advances in technology the numerically superior troops of the Daniellandish empire overran the kingdom of stone, led by the Junlaerd himself, now at the rather remarkable age 273(old even for a Nielda). In the end he struck the final blow against King A'tai, last of the free kings of the Nielda, and slaughtered his family in battle and by bounty. And with this final victory he declared his reign over all Nielda, under an eternal Daniellandish empire; every year claiming his ten souls.

But what kind of story would this be if the good guys just died and left a planet under the eternal reign of a crazed mad man and his increasingly powerful demon buddy?

One of the daughters of King A'tai, Diersel of the bloodied fang, escaped the emperor's slaughter. After weeks of fleeing the Junlaerd's hunters she threw herself at the mercy of a local farmer. She quickly became amazed to discover that this was not simply a farmer but a former priest, himself in hiding from the demon's machinations. No longer fleeing the two settled down and raised a family, teaching them of the Junlaerd's evils. Alas, after seventy years in hiding Diersel and her family were found, and she and her husband slain at the Junlaerd's orders. Their children, sent away when their parents had realized that they had been discovered, plotted to destroy the Junlaerd using the knowledge that their parents had collected.

One of them, the eldest daughter, was selected to do the deed. As the fairest among them, indeed one of the fairest of all the empire, they knew that she would be able to join the ten virgins regularly brought to the Junlaerd on his birthday. However without knowing what fate would await her within the palace, she would be forced to operate on her own judgement beyond the front gates; so the siblings granted their sister every blessing and enchantment that they could imagine(and unwittingly a few they couldn't). With what can only be considered divine providence, it was not necessary to plan further. The Junlaerd awaited his sacrifices at a fountain within the palace gardens. Dismissing his guards he quickly dispatched of the least attractive of the girls, while incanting the summons for Ekidan. Realizing what was about to happen, the daughter of Diersal struck down the other 8 girls with a flurry of spell craft, before casting a spell of binding upon the fountain, trapping the Junlaerd, the demon, and herself within it.

It took only four minutes for the Imperial guards to realize what had happened. Seeing the flash of magic and the absence of their liege lord, along with the dark surge of the fleeing demon; they decided to publicly announce that the Junlaerd's heart had failed him at last, and to bring together the previously unheard of councils of nobles and of commanders together to select an heir from among the Junlaerd's grand children(his children having all long died of old age).

It was also noticed by the guards that the so-called 'fountain of the demon' bestowed upon those who bathed in it's waters an increased aptitude for magic. Calling upon those within their order with knowledge of such things, the Imperial guard found the power of the fountain to be benign to harmless at worst. It became tradition from that time on for a guardsman to bathe in the fountain at the time of his promotion.